Details about the Avid Media Composer book I was asked to write for Packt Publishing. It's a recent addition to their step-by-step "Cookbook" series. At 435 pages, it's packed with practical examples, time-saving methods, tips and tricks to help get you working more efficiently and more confidently, so that you can spend less time dealing with technical and operational issues and instead focus on being creative.

[February 1, 2015] – Johnny Sepulveda, one of my past students, has won the Student Eddie Award at the 65th Annual American Cinema Editors Awards. He's a talented young man, and I hope I played a small part in his success. Congratulations Johnny! He competed against one hundred competitors from film schools and universities around the country. Richard Linklater, Oscar nominated director of Boyhood, presented the award.

The American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others and their commitment to the craft of editing. The objectives and purposes of the American Cinema Editors are to advance the art and science of the editing profession; to increase the entertainment value of motion pictures by attaining artistic pre-eminence and scientific achievement in the creative art of editing; to bring into close alliance those editors who desire to advance the prestige and dignity of the editing profession.

Before A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) and Chad Vaccarino (A Great Big World) achieved success as singer-songwriters, I had the opportunity to work with them, when they were quite a bit younger, on two short films that I directed.

A.J. made an appearance in the award-winning, poignant drama "Tickits," which was adapted from the acclaimed short story of the same name, written by Paul Milenski. The film also Co-Stars Mark McEwen of the CBS network morning program "The Early Show." In A.J.'s scene, he calls out to the central character, a young boy named Toby.

Chad Co-Starred in the Emmy winning comedy "Paul McCall" as Josh, the leader of a trio of mischief-makers that take delight in chasing little Paul on his way home from school. Throughout the film, Paul's imagination rivals that of Walter Mitty, and we see him, Josh, and his cohorts, pulled into several of Paul's wild fantasies, including becoming race car drivers and cowboys.

Below you'll find videos of:

Chad and Ian Axel, his partner in A Great Big World, along with Christina Aguilera performing in their new music video of "Say Something." The song quickly jumped to #1 after recently being performed on NBC's "The Voice."

The comedy short film "Paul McCall" (12 minutes). Chad appears throughout the film as Josh. Details about "Paul McCall," including awards, cast, and crew, may be found by scrolling down on this page.

"Say Something"

"Paul McCall"

* This video must be licensed for television broadcast.

"Tickits"

* This video must be licensed for television broadcast.

Entertainment Weekly recently revealed that the lauded BBC/PBS co-production of Sherlock will premiere the much anticipated Season 3 in the US on January 19, 2014. The UK premiere date has not yet been announced.

For those not familiar with the production, Sherlock Holmes is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. US audiences have become more familar with Cumberbatch since his recent roles as Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, and as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.

Holmes' collaborator, confidant, and biographer, Dr. John Watson, is portayed by Martin Freeman. Freeman is well known from such roles as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and as Tim in the original UK version of The Office.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Sherlock are available for streaming and/or download on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes.

This award-winning production is another in the long list of television series and feature films that have made Avid Media Composer their editing tool of choice.

[October 7, 2013] – Steve Pang, Visual Effects Editor on Gravity, confirmed today that the film was indeed edited using Avid Media Composer. Hopefully in the days and weeks to come we'll see some interviews with the editorial team so we can learn more about the challenges of a film of this scope, and how Avid Media Composer fit into their workflow.

[February 16, 2013] – American Film Institute first-year Editing Fellows Steve Pristin and Michael Smith were nominated for the Student Eddie Award at the 63rd Annual American Cinema Editors Awards. Steve and Michael were two of my students this year at American Film Institute. I hope I played a small part in their success. Congratulations guys! Pictured below is Student Eddie Award Winner Michael Smith with Academy Award winning actor Jon Voight, who presented the award.

The American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others and their commitment to the craft of editing. The objectives and purposes of the American Cinema Editors are to advance the art and science of the editing profession; to increase the entertainment value of motion pictures by attaining artistic pre-eminence and scientific achievement in the creative art of editing; to bring into close alliance those editors who desire to advance the prestige and dignity of the editing profession.

Benjamin Hershleder has completed producing, directing, and editing the feature length documentary The Bronx Boys Still Playing at 80, hosted by Carl Reiner. This film is a follow-up to the award-winning short documentary The Bronx Boys (archived web site) which was completed 10 years ago and eventually aired as part of Cinemax's Reel Life series, and on PBS. The broadcasts later lead to a story in TIME magazine about the men. The official web site is in development; in the interim, there is a Facebook page, and an IMDB page.

Avid Editing Book Published

Benjamin Hershleder has written a book on Avid Media Composer editing (core essentials and beyond) for Packt Publishing. Benjamin has been teaching the operational aspects of Avid Media Composer software since 1995, and has been an Avid Certified Instructor since 1997. He has been teaching as an adjunct professor at American Film Institute since 2007. Packt Publishing has a series of computer related books (e.g. programming) that they call "cookbooks" which include step-by-step instructions; and this book is one of the latest in that series. While the cookbook format is theirs, Benjamin worked hard to have additional information included in each chapter as well as in several appendices (at 435 pages it's packed full of helpful information). So, there are a lot of demystifying explanations for both how and why to do things, along with many sanity-saving tips and tricks. If the final stages of publishing stay on track, it should be available January 1, 2013 (or earlier). Also visit the Facebook page.

Eric was one of my students in several courses. I hope I helped in a small way with his success. Congratulations Eric!

The American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others and their commitment to the craft of editing. The objectives and purposes of the American Cinema Editors are to advance the art and science of the editing profession; to increase the entertainment value of motion pictures by attaining artistic pre-eminence and scientific achievement in the creative art of editing; to bring into close alliance those editors who desire to advance the prestige and dignity of the editing profession.

[July 3, 2011 - Posted by Benjamin Hershleder] – Over the past few days, in the wake of Apple's release of FCPX, I've seen a couple of posts where folks are deciding not to consider using Avid Media Composer simply based on how the company operated (or is perceived to have operated) in the past, rather than if they provide editing tools that fulfill their professional needs. It pains me, as someone who is not only entrenched in the Avid world but also aware of the system's many strengths and capabilities, to hear that folks continue to carry negative feelings toward Avid Technology. I hope Avid can eventually change people's perceptions of them from the past, and I know they're working very hard at doing just that.

"Harry B. Miller III, an ACE board member and head of the org's technology committee, said Avid "has always had the superior product" among editing software packages, but recently the company has also gone out of its way to solicit feedback from editors and shape the product to their needs.

And just a small bit of my own anecdotal evidence is that in the recent past top executives have also attended several gatherings here in the Los Angeles area at Alpha Dogs, and top executives will be coming to L.A. again on July 13th – details of where are yet to be announced, but the visit is mentioned in this blog post by Avid President and CEO Gary Greenfield where he reiterates Avid's commitment to professional editors' needs:

"...during the last couple of weeks.... the discussion has been both passionate and personal, because this is about your livelihood.

For Avid, making great video and audio products to serve the needs of professionals - top editors, whether for film, theatrical, television, broadcasters, major film and music studios, or independent film producers is our lifeblood. You can depend on us to be thinking about your needs first."

In addition, Avid has numerous employees listening and interacting with customers in many ways, including various email lists, the Avid Community Forums, and of course the requisite social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

I'm also well aware that Premiere is a strong and swiftly maturing application, very similar in a lot of ways to FCP, with a great company behind it. I'm a huge fan of Photoshop & After Effects myself; and with the recent CS5.5 update I'm very interested in exploring Premiere too (when I can find the time!).

Even though I use and teach Avid, I'm one to recommend the right tool for a particular job. So, if Premiere is a viable tool for a certain job, I'm all for using it (just as I was for FCP). In the end, what I hope folks don't do is what my mom used to call "cutting off your nose to spite your face." Check out Avid Media Composer (you can even use it for free for a month) and see if it's the professional tool you were looking for or, at minimum, if it has a place in your digital toolbox.

[July 1, 2011] – What a busy last few days it has been, since the release of Apple's FCPX editing application, keeping up with all the reviews and viral videos. With many "Legacy FCP" users feeling abandoned, the two major companies offering the alternative editing applications Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer have quickly weighed in on the change in the marketplace.

Adobe's Steve Forde reached out to those feeling disaffected, saying in part "Adobe has and will continue to focus on EARNING the right to be your tools of choice as you tell your story, and deliver professional content. We know that not all is perfect, but we will LISTEN, engage in dialogue and constantly improve our software."

Steve Forde and Al Mooney, in what can only be described as a refreshing move, also reached out to editor/blogger Jeffery Harrell who made a video relating his disappointment and frustration with FCPX which quickly went viral. Near the end of his blog post about his candid interaction with Forde and Mooney, Harrell perfectly relates how we all feel by saying "...sometimes it’s good to have a vendor who treats you like a partner, rather than a customer. Sometimes it’s good to work with somebody who listens more than they speak, somebody who gets where you’re coming from and wants to help you get where you want to go, rather than telling you where you should go."

With Adobe also offering a free trial of Premiere Pro, editors will be spending a good deal of time over the next 30 days kicking the tires and taking Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro out for a spin, figuring out which of these tools they'll decide to drive for the long haul.

[June 26, 2011] – If the fact that Final Cut Studio is no longer in the Apple Store and FCS links redirect to FCPX...
or if the numerous news outlets and blogs reporting that FCP7 (a.k.a. "Legacy FCP") is "End of Lifed" and in some cases that Apple is requesting retailers to send back their copies of FCS still doesn't convince folks of the end of development for this software along the FCP7 code-base, then here are Apple Product Managers discussing FCPX (excerpts below).

At no time do they mention continued development of "Legacy FCP" on that code-base. One would imagine that if they were going to concurrently develop "Legacy FCP" that they'd say that very loudly and very clearly. It sure would end a lot of the Apple bashing that's happening. Right?Read more »